


This Wind Is Going Two Ways

by creative_smtimes



Category: Chocolat (2000)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, queering it up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:26:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29412606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creative_smtimes/pseuds/creative_smtimes
Summary: What if Vianne could find middle ground between traveling like Roux and her home with Josephine?
Relationships: Josephine Muscat/Vianne Rocher, Vianne Rocher/Roux
Kudos: 3





	This Wind Is Going Two Ways

When Roux returned, it did not take many afternoons spent talking over hot chocolate for him and Vianne to revive their affair. His family had found a shipwright in Toulouse who, with their help and because of this for a cheaper price, had built them new boats. In the smaller boat which functioned as Roux's bedroom – the one they had spent their first night together on and which had been spared by the fire because of this – was where they would meet. They would tie it loose from the pier, float a bit down the stream, and when they thought they were far enough away from other people, they could do whatever their hearts desired.

A month passed and soon, Vianne could feel the restlessness of Roux and his people and when she came home, Anouk and Josephine could sense it coursing through her, too. Vianne knew they knew and for a few days the question of who would talk to her about it first – Roux, telling her he was leaving, or Josephine asking her to stay – felt like it would drive her into insanity. 

To her surprise, the first person who mentioned it, was Anouk.

“You want to go, don’t you?” she whispered into her mother’s pillow one night when Vianne had thought she had long been asleep.

Turning around to look at her daughter, Vianne could not find the words to reply, so she simply stroked the hair out of Anouk’s face and tried to calm her own breathing.

“Roux and his people won’t be staying forever and I can tell you would love to go with them.”

“Nonsense,” Vianne tried with a chuckle, continuing to stroke her hair. “We’ve stayed here for more than two years already, I can do this, we can stay here forever.”

Anouk looked her directly into the eyes. “Don’t lie to me, maman.”

Vianne's breath got stuck in her throat as her daughter's words reached her brain and again, she was at a loss for words. 

“I know you want to go and Josephine knows, too. We talked about it yesterday when you were still with Roux.”

“You did?” Vianne swallowed.

She nodded and Vianne could feel a stray hair of hers tickling her cheek. “It would be okay, you know,” she said. Seeing the confusion in her mother’s eyes, she continued. “You can go with them, go wherever they are going or wherever you want to go. Just come back before winter, please.”

It took Vianne a couple of seconds to process this information and again, she did not know what to say, so her daughter continued.

“Josephine and I agreed on this. We can run the Chocolaterie and the Café over summer, we have Caroline and Luc who can help us and if it does get too much, we can just sell the chocolates over in the Café for a bit until you return. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

Vianne started nodding, slowly at first but then faster as tears started filling her eyes. “You would do that, my baby, you would do that for me?”

“We would,” Vianne suddenly heard Josephine’s voice from the door. “I’m sorry, I could hear Anouk speaking from over in my bed and I thought it would make it easier for you to accept if you heard from me personally that it would be okay.”

“Thank you,” Vianne murmured and then again, louder, “thank you!” She stretched out her arm into the air, gesturing for Josephine to join the two of them in bed for a hug. 

After a second of hesitation, Josephine acquiesced, sliding under the covers next to Anouk and when Vianne’s arms wrapped around her across the child between them, it felt more like family than anything in her life ever had.

The next morning, Vianne went straight down to the boats to talk to Roux. She told him he could tell his people to prepare for travel and when he looked at her confusedly at why this would be making her so happy, she told him she would be coming with him. 

“Anouk and Josephine said it was okay, that they could keep both shops running if I went with you for two months or so and then returned back home.”

“Home, hm?” he smiled almost teasingly. 

“Anouk is my home,” Vianne replied, “and Josephine is starting to feel like home, too.” Looking up at him, she considered her next words carefully. “But, like you, discovering unknown places will also always be a part of me and maybe… maybe you feel like a part of home already, too.”

“I do?” he asked, his smile turning purely happy, sincerity shining in his eyes.

“You do,” she smiled back and leaned in for a kiss.

* * *

Over the following two and a half months, Anouk and Josephine received postcards from all over France and even parts of West Germany, each telling them in tiny handwriting to fit more details about all the places Vianne had seen and the people she had met. In the bigger cities, she had gone to already existing chocolateries and patisseries to share her recipes and in smaller towns, she simply shared her secrets with some of the open-minded people that took her and the others in enough. Every postcard she sent to “her girls” as she had started referring to them within her writing, has signed with the words, “Kisses, Vianne – Maman”.

When, after two and a half months, the autumn winds finally brought her back to their little town, she was greeted not only by the smiles and hugs of her girls, but also by the view of all the postcards she had sent them having been hung up on the wall of the chocolaterie. Having taken the night-train home, it was morning when she returned and Anouk – despite protesting that it wouldn’t be too bad if she missed one day – had to go to school. After another hug and kiss and the promise of more stories that hadn’t fit the cards when she returned in the afternoon, she finally obliged.

“Were you able to sleep on the train much?” Josephine asked, feigning being busy with preparing something behind the counter.

“Not really,” Vianne sighed, looking over at her suitcases, which Josephine had taken from her hands as soon as she had arrived and placed them in front of the stairs to their rooms.

“Sleep for a bit, until Anouk comes back,” Josephine said, her voice so calm and gentle, it almost had the power to make Vianne fall asleep right then and there.

But Vianne pushed against that feeling of letting go, brushed a strand of hair behind her ears and looked around the shop. “Are you sure?” she finally asked, looking back over to her friend, “I could help, I’m sure you have to…”

While she had been rambling, Josephine had made her way around the counter so she was now able to stop Vianne with a soft hand on her shoulder. “We managed just fine for more than 10 weeks, I think half a day more won’t hurt too much.”

This, especially in combination with the small touch, brought a smile to Vianne’s face as she gave in. “Okay, but wake me when she’s back, yes?”

“I will.”

Before Vianne could protest, Josephine grabbed her friend’s suitcases and carried them up to the room.

Vianne slept for five hours until Anouk returned and, as promised, more stories and new details to stories already told were shared over three cups of hot chocolate and some cake. 

A week after Vianne’s return, Josephine told her she thought it had been long enough since Serge had left and she was ready to move back into the apartment behind the Café, claiming she had already overstayed her welcome but only a few days later, winter started creeping in and Vianne made sure she understood that a bed of three was warmer than sleeping alone and even when Josephine – or sometimes Anouk, as she was now old enough to sometimes stay out a bit longer – slept in the other room, it was the simple presence of company, especially specifically these two, that convinced Josephine to stay. 

* * *

Winter passed and so did spring until Roux came knocking at their door again. Vianne kissed him before he could even ask if they, by chance, had any hot chocolate there for him and if there was a tinge of jealousy in the pit of Josephine’s stomach, she did not mention it. 

For a month, Roux’s people stayed. Roux and Vianne exchanged stories of the time spent apart, Anouk rekindled her friendship with Gati and some of the other kids and even Luc accompanied them sometimes on their adventures around town. Josephine watched it all with laughs and smiles and when Vianne said goodbye, leaving again to spend the summer with Roux, Josephine only cried when they were gone and she was alone in bed.

The postcards on the wall doubled as the next year passed in a similar fashion and only right before Vianne returned from her third summer with Roux did Josephine decide to confront her feelings.

Like both times before, Vianne returned with the night-train and like both times before, Anouk went to school after having been given the promise of more stories in the afternoon. 

Like both times before, Josephine carried Vianne’s suitcases up the stairs so she could take her nap but when she turned around to return to the Chocolaterie (she had planned to have the conversation that night, wanting to let Vianne sleep first and foremost), Vianne held her back by gently taking her hand.

“Do you want to hear a story I didn’t tell you in the postcards and that I don’t know yet if I’m ready to tell Anouk?” she asked and Josephine almost thought she sounded scared.

“You should sleep first, you can tell me tonight,” Josephine smiled and removed her hand from Vianne’s, taking it into her own instead so the loss of contact would stop tingling so much.

Vianne swallowed and took a deep breath before she spoke again. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep before I’ve told you.”

“You’re exhausted,” Josephine countered, “I’ll wake you up a bit before Anouk comes back and you can tell me then, yes?”

But Vianne’s eyes grew almost pleading and all resistance within Josephine melted away when she heard the woman’s whispered “Please”.

So she sat down on the bed next to her and waited for Vianne to find her words.

“Before we said goodbye this time, Roux and I had a conversation,” Vianne started. “He pointed out that, while he loved me and wanted our summers together to continue for as long as possible, he only does get to see me for three to four months each year and, while he knows that there’s some unwritten law that people should only have one partner, he had noticed how he sometimes gets lonely when I’m not there and he asked me if it was okay for me if he was with other people, too.”

Almost whispering despite Vianne having spoken in a normal tone, Josephine asked, “What did you reply?”

Vianne chuckled slightly. “I said ‘Do we strike you as the kind of people who follow unwritten laws?’”

Breath and words stuck in her throat similar to what had happened to Vianne when Anouk had first proposed the summer with Roux, it took Josephine a moment to understand. “So you gave him permission to see other people?”

Vianne nodded slowly. “I did, yes.”

“And that’s okay for you.”

“That’s okay for me.”

“And…” The next question, again, took a few seconds to leave Josephine’s lips. “Do you think you’re going to do that, too? See other people, I mean.”

Vianne studied Josephine’s face for a moment before she spoke, her voice a bit lower than before. “Would you want me to?”

“What?” The whispered word left Josephine without consideration, but something about Vianne’s eyes told her she meant exactly what she thought she meant.

“There is only one person other that Roux I’d be interested in being with in that way and I thought I’d get her permission before I followed through with it so… would you want me to?”

“… want you to… what?” Josephine stuttered.

Vianne wet her lips quickly and tried to calm her breathing. “… to kiss you, for example.”

Josephine’s eyes darted to Vianne’s lips and back to her eyes before she slowly, very slowly started nodding.

“Yes,” she finally whispered. “I want you to kiss me.”

And so she did.


End file.
